preserved for him by his
sister till she died; beside them, medical works, relics of his
abortive study when he was neither boy nor man. Descending, the eye
fell upon yellow and green covers, dozens of French novels, acquired at
any time from the year of his majority up to the other day; in the
mass, they reminded him of a frothy season, when he boasted a cheap
Gallicism, and sneered at all things English. A sprinkling of
miscellaneous literature accounted for ten years or more when he cared
little to collect books, when the senses raged in him, and only by
miracle failed to hurl him down many a steep place. Last came the
serious acquisitions, the bulk of his library: solid and expensive
works--historians, archaeologists, travellers, with noble volumes of
engravings, and unwieldy tomes of antique lore. Little enough of all
this had Rolfe digested, but more and more he loved to have erudition
within his reach. He began to lack room for comely storage; already a
large bookcase had intruded into his bedroom. If he continued to
purchase, he must needs house himself more amply; yet he dreaded the
thought of a removal.

He knew enough and to spare of life in lodgings. His experience began
when he came up as a lad to Guy's Hospital, when all lodgings in London
shone with the glorious light of liberty. It took a wider scope when,
having grasped his little patrimony, he threw physic to the dogs, and
lived as a gentleman at large. In those days he grew familiar with many
kinds of 'apartments' and their nomadic denizens. Having wasted his
substance, he found refuge in the office of an emigration agent, where,
by slow degrees, he proved himself worth a couple of hundred pounds per
annum. This was the 'business' to which Hugh Carnaby vaguely referred
when people questioned him concerning his friend's history.

Had he possessed the commercial spirit, Harvey might have made his
position in this office much more lucrative. Entering nominally as a
clerk, he undertook from the first a variety of duties which could only
be discharged by a man of special abilities; for instance, the literary
revision of seductive pamphlets and broadsheets issued by his employer
to the public contemplating emigration. These advertisements he
presently composed, and, from the point of view of effectiveness, did
it remarkably well. How far such work might be worthy of an honest man,
was another question, which for several years scarcely troubled his
consci